Assignment two: People and Activity.

This assignment is all about people engaging in some sort of activity.  After some thought a chance conversation led to my idea.  A lady who is a member of my local photographic society mentioned her son who is a musician. 


I decided to photograph him not on a stage as he records and works in digital but in the space where he works at home.  I knew this could cause a few problems in camera angles etc but I decided that there are times when even professional photographers have to work within a very tight area.


The photographs that follow show Dan as he starts off explaining to me what he does, it then goes on to show him playing various instruments but not necessarily how you would expect them to be played.

 Photography one is the start of the morning Dan was a bit hesitant to begin with as he was unsure what he had been 'volunteered' for. I have included this photograph as it shows his expression as he listens to what I want him to do and also he starts to explain about his music.

 Photography two and Dan is showing me some of his work on the computer, he records the sounds of nature and also various instruments and then blends them together producing the most amazing digital sounds.

 Photographs three and four and he is starting to record some sounds from the key board I like the black and white close up of his hand as it shows him actually playing.

Photograph five and Dan is much more comfortable with me now and he is playing one of his guitars and demonstrating some of the music he starts with. Dan uses folk music and blends it with other sounds.
I am moving round what is essentially a small area trying to get the best angles as we go, I had one studio light in the room as it was an overcast day, the only down side of this was I was unable to position the light where the reflection of the reflector umbrella couldn't be seen.

The sun had come out for a brief time and this photograph was taken with natural light, This time the guitar is played using a bow, a bit like a violin would be played but it produced this beautiful resonance as its being played.  The biggest influence in Dans work is Icelandic music hence the flag.

The final photographs are all of Dan playing different instruments.

I like the photograph above as it shows movement in the hands, this took many attempts to get as Dan was very quick and his hands moved like lightening across the small drum.

These are my final ten images I think they show a diverse range of musical instruments from keyboard through to drums and also a 'wooden box' or rather what appears to be a wooden box but inside it has like a snare drum part.

As I stated previously I knew this wouldn't be easy I used F9 and a shutter speed of 1/125 of a second for most of them.  So far as post production is concerned I try to keep it simple I adjust the clarity in raw then make minor adjustments to levels and brightness in elements 11.  I have cropped a couple of the photographs and in a couple of places I have cloned leads out which could be distracting.

If I ask my self could I have done anything different then the answer would be yes in part, I would rather have not needed to use a light so I could remove the reflection from the screen and of course more room would always have been useful, but over all it was a very enjoyable morning where I also learnt a  lot about music. My thanks must go to Dan for his help.